Ready Or Not

Ready Or Not, a tactical shooter from late 2021, presents a demanding workload that heavily stresses both the CPU and GPU. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 across standard resolutions and presets. The data reveals a system that is capable of high frame rates but exhibits distinct bottlenecking behavior depending on the resolution and graphical settings, placing it in the lower-middle tier of tested configurations for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable decline as resolution increases, but the rate of that decline tells a compelling story about system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 302 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 190 FPS, a reduction of approximately 37%. Stepping up to 4K Low yields 99 FPS, which is a 48% drop from the 1440p figure and a 67% drop from 1080p. This scaling pattern suggests that at lower resolutions, the system is heavily CPU-bound; the GPU has ample headroom, and the frame rate is limited by the processor's ability to feed the renderer.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the system hits 239 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 151 FPS (a 37% drop), and at 4K High, it plunges to 79 FPS (a 48% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High presets is notable. It implies that even when the graphical load is increased, the CPU's limitations at lower resolutions are so dominant that the relative performance hit from increasing resolution remains constant. The CPU is the limiting component at 1080p and 1440p, holding back the RTX 3070.

The picture changes at 4K. Here, the GPU begins to take over as the primary constraint. The difference between 4K Low (99 FPS) and 4K High (79 FPS) is 20 FPS, a 20% reduction. This is a much smaller absolute gap than the 63 FPS difference seen between 1080p Low (302 FPS) and 1080p High (239 FPS). This narrowing gap indicates that at 4K, the rendering load is heavy enough to engage the GPU fully, making it the bottleneck. The data shows a system where the i5-9400 is insufficient for maximizing the RTX 3070's potential at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the balance shifts, and the GPU becomes the limiting factor, resulting in more consistent, albeit lower, frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this CPU and GPU combo in Ready Or Not?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 302 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers an average of 151 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers an average of 106 FPS. This represents a 45 FPS (approximately 30%) performance cost for enabling Ultra settings over High.

Q: Is the system more likely to be bottlenecked by the CPU or GPU at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the performance gap between Low and High settings is relatively small (99 FPS vs 79 FPS). This suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at this resolution, as increasing the graphical load does not cause a proportional drop in frame rate.

Q: What are the minimum frame rate figures recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The data shows minimum FPS figures for the Medium preset only. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 224 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 141 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 74 FPS.

Q: Does the game's performance scale well with resolution on this hardware?

A: Performance scaling is steep but consistent. Moving from 1080p High to 1440p High results in a ~37% drop in FPS, and moving from 1440p High to 4K High results in a similar ~48% drop. This indicates a predictable, resolution-bound scaling curve.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested configurations in the database?

A: The combo ranks 1593 out of 3714 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower half (approximately the 43rd percentile) of all systems tested.

Settings Recommendations

Based strictly on the measured data, the High preset appears to offer the most compelling balance of visual fidelity and performance for this specific hardware combination. At 1080p High, the system produces 239 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate monitor. At 1440p High, the average of 151 FPS remains excellent, providing a smooth and responsive experience for a tactical shooter where clarity and reaction time are keyikuha. The Ultra preset, while offering higher visual quality, incurs a significant performance penalty: dropping to 168 FPS at 1080p and 106 FPS at 1440p. This 30% reduction in frame rate from High to Ultra is a steep price.

The Medium preset does not offer a meaningful advantage over High in terms of smoothness, as the frame rates are already very high with High settings. For 4K gaming, the High preset yields 79 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 55 FPS, which may be too inconsistent for a fast-paced shooter. The data suggests that for most users, High is the optimal setting. It provides a large performance headroom over Ultra while still delivering a substantial visual upgrade over Medium and Low. The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates, likely compromises visual quality to a degree that is unnecessary given the excellent performance of the High preset at 1080p and 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a clear matrix of performance across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the system is exceptionally fast. Low settings produce an average of 302 FPS. Medium settings yield 263 FPS, with a minimum of 224 FPS and a maximum of 302 FPS. High settings produce 239 FPS. Ultra settings drop to 168 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 134 FPS, showing the significant impact of presets at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, performance remains high but starts to show the load. Low settings deliver 190 FPS. Medium settings average 166 FPS, with a min of 141 and max of 191 FPS. High settings produce 151 FPS. Ultra settings fall to 106 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra here is 84 FPS. The system still comfortably exceeds 100 FPS on all presets.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is fully engaged. Low settings produce 99 FPS. Medium settings average 87 FPS, with a min of 74 and max of 100 FPS. High settings deliver 79 FPS. Ultra settings are the only configuration to drop below 60 FPS, averaging 55 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 44 FPS, highlighting the immense pressure 4K rendering places on the RTX 3070.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, with its GA104 chip on the Ampere architecture, is the clear performance driver in this pairing. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, which is crucial for feeding the high-resolution textures and geometry in a game like Ready Or Not. The data shows that the GPU's role shifts from being underutilized at 1080p to being the primary bottleneck at 4K. The fact that 4K Low (99 FPS) is only 20 FPS faster than 4K High (79 FPS) suggests that the GPU is working near its limit, and the framerate is constrained by its raw compute and memory throughput.

The GPU's specifications support this interpretation. Its boost clock of 1725 MHz, combined with 5888 shading units, gives it a peak FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS. This is a substantial amount of compute power. However, the game's demands at 4K Ultra are too great, pushing the average down to 55 FPS. The measured Passmark G3D score of 22214 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162 provide a synthetic baseline that confirms its strong raw performance. Yet, in this specific game, the RTX 3070's potential is often left on the table at lower resolutions because the CPU cannot keep up, preventing the GPU from reaching its maximum frame output.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 serves as the system's foundation, and its limitations are clearly exposed by the measured data. This Coffee Lake processor offers 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. In a modern game like Ready Or Not, which can utilize multiple threads, the 6-core/6-thread configuration without Hyper-Threading is a significant constraint. The benchmark results confirm its mid-range standing. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and Geekbench multi-core score of 5141 place it in the 47th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is an average performer by modern standards.

The most compelling evidence of the CPU bottleneck comes from the resolution scaling. At 1080p Low, the system produces 302 FPS. When the resolution is increased to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 190 FPS. This massive 112 FPS drop is primarily due to the CPU's inability to process the game's draw calls and physics calculations fast enough to keep up with the GPU's potential at lower resolutions. The CPU is saturated, and increasing the resolution gives the GPU more work to do, but the CPU is already at its limit. The fact that the i5-9400 sits within 0.4% of rivals like the Intel Core i3-10305 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 in synthetic benchmarks further underscores that it is not a high-end part, and its performance in a CPU-intensive game like Ready Or Not will inherently limit the overall system, especially when paired with a powerful GPU like the RTX 3070.

How This Combo Ranks

In the comprehensive database of tested configurations for Ready Or Not, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 holds a rank of 1593 out of 3714 combos. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, specifically around the 43rd percentile. This ranking is lower than one might expect for a system containing an RTX 3070, which is a high-end GPU. The cause for this is the CPU. The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 is modest, and its 47th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that it is not a top-tier performer.

This pairing creates a significant imbalance. The GPU is performing at a level that is near the top of its class, but the CPU is holding the entire system back. The ranking reflects the combination's performance, not just the GPU's capability. While the RTX 3070 alone is a powerful component, its performance in this game is constrained by the older, lower-core-count processor. The system effectively performs as a mid-range machine because the CPU prevents the GPU from ever reaching its full potential in most scenarios. The data suggests that this combo would be ranked much higher if paired with a more modern, higher-core-count CPU. As it stands, the 1593rd rank out of 3714 is a direct consequence of the CPU's inability to adequately feed the RTX 3070, making the overall system less competitive than its individual parts might suggest.